1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for the application of a hair product to sections of hair. The invention is particularly suitable for the application of a dye product to sections of hair.
2. Discussion of Background
There are a number of types of hair dye products: temporary dyes, semi-permanent dyes, and permanent or oxidation dyes. These dye products can be provided in the form of a cream, a foam, or a liquid of greater or lesser viscosity. Dye products in liquid or gel form can be used after mixing, if necessary, from a pan or from a bowl.
Dyes used from a bowl can be applied to the entire head of hair, with all of the hair impregnated with the product, and with the aim being to modify the color of the entire head of hair. Alternately, dyes can be applied to sections of hair, where only certain parts of the hair are soaked with the product in order to produce a non-homogeneous color effect once the treatment is completed, thereby highlighting the hair with lighter or darker shades of color than the natural or overall shade of the hair.
One known technique for applying a product to sections of hair uses a dyeing cap which tightly fits over the hair. With this technique, sections of hair are pulled out of the cap through holes distributed regularly over the surface of the cap using a hook-type device. The dye product is then applied to these extracted sections of hair in the same manner as for all-over dyeing. The product is usually applied with a brush. After the treatment is complete, the dyeing cap is removed and the colored hair resumes its natural position.
The dyeing cap technique is very tedious and has at least three major drawbacks. Specifically, after the cap is put on, the hair is flattened and the sections of hair are randomly extracted through the holes which can lead to a result, particularly in terms of the distribution of the sections of hair, which is quite different from the intended result. Furthermore, the size of the extracted sections of hair is proportional to the diameter of the holes in the cap. As this diameter is usually small (typically about 1 mm to 2 mm), there is poor juxtaposition of the sections of hair. In addition, due to the thickness of the cap and the thickness of the sections of hair, and because the extracted hair is not necessarily the hair whose connection to the scalp is directly beneath the hole through which it is extracted, the dye product deposited by this technique clearly does not go to the roots of the hair, thereby detracting from the natural appearance of the result.
To mitigate these inadequacies, a variety of application devices have been devised. Generally, these application devices are based either on a comb or on a brush, or on a combination of the two. Such devices are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,146,936 and 4,691,720. Such devices generally suffer from the same drawbacks as described above relating particularly to the fact that they are used by approaching the hair from the exterior or top of the hair. As a result, most of the product is deposited on the outer surfaces of the section of hair, with very little penetrating interiorly. After the applicator initially contacts the exterior or outer surface of the hair, the applicator is then moved relative to the section of hair from the root to the tip. Experience shows that during this movement the user tends to lift the applicator so that it departs from a trajectory parallel to the curvature of the scalp. As a result, several hairs become detached from the applicator and fall back onto the head. In the case of a dye product, these hairs will therefore not be dyed. The result obtained is therefore far from satisfactory.
Another type of applicator for sections of hair is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,030,968. This device is a U-shaped tong system having an open reservoir at the end of one of the arms of the U. A rigid applicator (which may be made of metal, glass or plastic) is provided at the end of the other arm of the U. With this arrangement, the section of hair to be colored is placed in the reservoir containing the dye product, and the hair is held in position with the aid of the rigid applicator which fits into the reservoir in such a way as to soak the section of hair in the liquid. The system is then moved all the way along the section of hair from the root. Such an applicator requires the reservoir to be relatively full in order for the entire section of hair to be dipped in the product and completely coated. Moreover, with such a configuration there is a danger that the product will drip out of the reservoir during application. Also, the rigid applicator which keeps the section of hair in the reservoir tends to scrape the product away as the system moves so that one side of the section of hair is not soaked with the product. Finally, such a device requires the section of hair to be treated to be picked out with the fingers or with a supplementary device.